AGENCIE Architecture & Engineering P.C.

My husband and I own a spa in Midtown Manhattan. We have been operating for 10 years now in a space that has experienced many iterations. Agencie Architects designed and managed our first space. Then when we expanded we used them again. I have found the most successful collaborations to be the ones where that expand on my own ideas and offer new concepts and inspiration. Agencie stands out in this way. Their ability to solve design challenges is outstanding and their communication is unmatched. As a business owner one of the biggest worries is staying within a budget. Agencie works with clients and their money like it is their own. That includes meeting deadlines. A trait quite unique in New York City. I highly recommend Agencie to anyone who wants the job done right on every level.

I am very happy to offer this enthusiastic review for Agencie. We purchased a 4 bedroom apartment in a pre-war building that needed substantial renovations. We interviewed a few architects, and settled upon Agencie due to their concise manner and beautiful work. Mid-way into design, another, slightly larger and more attractive apartment was listed in our building. We were crushed when we saw it, and after many long nights decided we would prefer the new apartment. Since we were midway into design with Agencie, we decided to finish design of the first apartment and include it as part of our sale of that apt, which went very quickly. Our second apartment has been a joy to live in, and we are very grateful to Agencie for their generosity and attention during the entire process.

AgencieGroup helped realize our dream to expand a Manhattan duplex across two adjacent brownstones. At the time the project was conceived our neighborhood was already calendared to be Landmarked. We knew that design goals must anticipate, respect and weigh opinions and views not only of neighbors, but also local community, city planners and preservationists. Award-winning design team AgencieGroup was our first choice for three reasons: they’d completed complex jobs in New York City that required working with authorities including Landmarks, a can-do attitude towards the challenges of working with raw roof space, and fluency both with architecture and engineering that bubbled up naturally from registered architect Andrés Cortés and professional engineer Sarrah Khan. With multiple audiences to satisfy, Andrés, Sarrah and we began studying nearby rooftop additions for clues to which aesthetics were likely to work and which to avoid. Our street has a remarkable range of building heights, the result of a hodgepodge of traditional pre-war, 60’s yellow brick, brownstones of varying widths and an Art Deco skyscraper at the end of the block next to us. Yet even throughout this heterogeneity successful addition themes emerged: openness, split-levels and generous green spaces. As we are atop brownstones, next we considered where brownstones fit in the history of New York and what motivated their design. We discovered that the original architects of brownstones were visionaries of their time. They embraced change and used new technologies to bring previously unaffordable benefits to their clients. In particular, they took advantage of lower manufacturing costs brought on by the industrial revolution. For the first time, middle class families - not just the super rich - could afford carved stone and organic pressed metal forms like projecting cornices. Smooth monolith features and especially the color of carved brownstone was interpreted as a bold and refreshing move towards nature and away from stark white marble, limestone and gothic ornamentation. Out of this narrative grew the overall concept of more outdoor than indoor areas, lots of green spaces, and modern forms and material choices that would neither copy nor hide but rhyme with and celebrate the graceful geometry and monolith beauty of the brownstone buildings below. Andrés and Sarrah were a joy to work with. Each has been at one time or another creator, consultant, guide, collaborator and dreamer. We were impressed with their method of design - how they moved the overall concept to actual plans. Their process began not with rooms, walls or any specific object but with relationships between things and the feelings invoked. For example, the relationship between indoor and outdoor spaces, the nearby presence of Riverside Park and how that might influence our green spaces, the feelings created between new work above and the brownstones below. They took account not just of the prevailing weather but also our microclimate which can be surprisingly gusty and unpredictable given the wind tunnel effects from the skyscraper next door. Window orientation and height were natural responses not only to the daily arc of sun, but also to the subtler way that arc itself waxes and wanes with the seasons. If you’ve built before you may also appreciate that Andrés and Sarrah do well the other things “around” architecture, engineering and permitting: listening, asking thoughtful questions, attending to mind-numbing details yet keeping the job rolling through thick and thin and never losing sight of the big picture. Hope your experience working with them is as wonderful as was ours.

I worked with Agencie on the gut renovation of a 3 family townhouse in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Throughout the design/development process Andres and Sarrah displayed a remarkable ability to synthesize my wants and needs for the space with their own ideas and ample experience. They will listen, but also challenge. The result was a completely different layout from my original concept that ultimately proved far superior in terms of lifestyle and value add. Their complementary skill sets and easy demeanor make working with them a pleasure.

I initially hired Agencie to renovate my then company's 10,000sf warehouse space. I ran a large format print shop and had stumbled into Agencie at a film screening. Agencie designed our built out our space and through that relationship we re-hired Agencie to work on our townhouse in Park Slope, BK. We have nothing but encouraging things to say about them as a group. Nice people. Thoughtful ideas. Aware that money matters! I feel they provided a lot of context and support during construction and we have been very happy with our unexpectedly elegant home for the last 5 years. Highly reccommend them!

We recently completed a gut renovation of our townhouse and had a positive and productive experience with Agencie Architecture & Engineering. They offer consolidated services in architecture and engineering, which we found added a depth to their understanding of how to accomplish a project from both an aesthetic and functional point of view. Nice people! We like our house. We found Andres to be very patient and understanding, and he really made sure we achieved our vision with his valuable input along the the way. I highly recommend Andres and his team.